p. 205 | Cain and Abel, by Jos. Clark.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 11, 1872

Cain and Abel,

By Jos. Clark.

—OR, THE FIRST AND LAST TRAGEDY.—

The difficulty between Cain and Abel which finally culminated in the murder of righteous Abel, arose from the disregard which Cain manifested to the order of God in offering the blood of beasts in sacrifice. Cain held it a small thing to deviate from the letter of the command, and hence he held that the fruits of the ground were as acceptable as the blood of beasts; and as these were the fruits of his toil he scorned to offer the blood of beasts. Abel, on the contrary, offered the blood of beasts (see Gen. 4:3, 4), and was accepted, while Cain was rejected.

To many superficial observers, the position of Cain was reasonable and fair; and no doubt Cain reasoned himself into the belief that he was right in his position; and from this delusion he never awoke until his hand had shed the blood of Abel, who doubtless often plead with, and reasoned with, Cain on this subject, which so exasperated Cain that in a moment of frenzy he struck the fatal blow which has resounded through the lapse of six thousand years to the present moment.

So ends the first fatal dispute in the family of Adam, or what Cain was pleased to call a non-essential; a very small and trifling affair in his esteem. Whose affair is it, he reasoned, what I offer? If I offer the value of the sacrifice, whose business is it what I offer? Is not the produce of the field as sacred as the flock or herd?

The second and the last dispute in the family of Adam, on a similar topic, is likely to end in a similar manner.

Cain disputed the right of proper order in sacrificial offerings. He held that there was a proper substitute for the blood; and, accordingly, he offered this substitute; that is, the produce of the ground. So, at the present day, there are many who hold that there is a substitute for the true Sabbath; that is, the first day of the week, and they practice accordingly.

And I regret to say that too often the advocates of the substitute Sabbath manifest the disposition of Cain when the subject is presented for their consideration. If they do not cut a club from the forest, they procure a club equally dangerous in their influence upon popular assemblies and legislative bodies. They openly proclaim their intention to uphold their substitute Sabbath by the strong arm of law. And, I ask, did Cain use a more powerful instrument in the murder of Abel than is wielded by the officers of the law? Are clubs as effective as revolvers? And when religionists appeal to the secular arm, do they not invoke swords, and all the modern destructive implements of warfare, to put down their opponents? Was not this the principle on which Cain acted?

For the authority of prophecy on this point, read Revelation 12:17, and 13:11–18.

Is it not a striking coincidence that a dispute upon order in the worship of God should be the first to rend the family of Adam, and a like dispute upon a similar topic should close the history of the race? One substitutes for blood, the other substitutes for holy time.

Jos. Clark.